Press Release

Oakland County sues Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Pontiac, MI. — Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner and the Oakland County Corporation Counsel will hold a news conference Thursday to announce the filing of a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that alleges the two lenders have failed to pay the county a real estate transfer tax for the privilege of recording various documents with the County Register of Deeds. The news conference will be held at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011 at the Oakland County Treasurer’s Office, 1200 North Telegraph, Pontiac.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Monday, has the potential to recover more than $1 million for Oakland County based on the number of times Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed to pay the real estate transfer tax.

The Oakland County Corporation Counsel discovered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s failure to pay after reading an article titled “Bypassing county fees may cost banks” in the December 2, 2010 edition of the Oakland County Legal News. The Corporation Counsel – along with outside counsel Kenneth Robinson and William Horton – began to take a look at real estate transfer taxes on various documents filed with the Oakland County Register of Deeds. In the course of examining those documents, the Corporation Counsel discovered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s failure to pay.